Posted by Blake Royer, December 6, 2007 at 4:30 PM
Skirt steak is one of the more compelling reasons that a ridged, cast iron pan is a worthy investment for your kitchen. It’s one of the best cuts off the grill—a high fat-to-meat ratio helps keep it rich and moist—and it adapts incredibly well to off-summer adventures on the stove. This particular recipe is from The Best of Gourmet: A Year of Celebrations
, an über-fancy, photo-laden dinner party cookbook that has hidden in its less-glamorous final 100 pages a collection of absolutely spot-on recipes.
A food-processor sauce comes together in the same amount of time it takes the steak to finish cooking and rest. Flank steak would also work for this recipe, a similar, leaner cut that’s sometimes easier to find, and which has a more profound beefy flavor (though with less fat, it’s harder to cook perfectly). Either way, cutting the meat across the grain is essential—on a flank cut, the grain usually goes lengthwise along the steak, while on skirt it's crosswise. You can further thwart the inevitable chewiness of both these cuts by slicing on the bias at a 45 degree angle, which helps make thinner slices.
At first I’d thought about serving the steak on a bed of greens with extra sauce, allowing the cilantro-garlic pesto to seep down and season everything. But if I’d had some flour tortillas in the fridge, this would have been rolled up with some chopped onions and another sprinkle of the cilantro.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, October 18, 2007 at 1:00 PM
I have a tiny apartment and an equally tiny kitchen.
Scratch that. Depending on how you look at it, I either have a large kitchen with a couch, TV, and bookshelves in it—or a living room with a sink, refrigerator, and stove. Yes, my living room and kitchen are essentially one large room. Oh, New York, New York.
Anyway, with literally a foot of counter space to work with, cooking at home is sometimes a bit of a chore. That's why I went a little crazy the other day here at the Serious Eats office, cleaning up and organizing our underused kitchenette to free up a relatively ample work surface. My plan was to make my National Meatloaf Appreciation Day meatloaf in the toaster oven here. Crazy, I know, but it was either that or the microwave, and not even I am willing to go there.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, September 5, 2007 at 2:30 PM
According to the Lobels, the folks who wrote the book we're featuring this week, cowboy steaks are "big, brawny, extra-thick, bone-in rib-eye steaks weighing in at about two pounds each."
They take a while to grill—about 30 to 35 minutes—but they take on a nice crust while you're at it. You probably don't need anything else to accompany them, but the recipe that follows includes a spicy chipotle mayo.
The recipe is from Lobel's Prime Time Grilling.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, September 4, 2007 at 4:45 PM
The first of our Cook the Book recipes for the week is for cheese-stuffed cheeseburgers. As in, the cheese is inside. Whenever I write about cheese-stuffed cheeseburgers (like the Jucy Lucy) on A Hamburger Today, people seem to go wild for them. The recipe follows the jump here, but before you get to it, I'd give you two pieces of advice before making and eating this thing.
1.) In Step 4, Make sure you seal the patties tight. If you don't, the melting cheese will ooze out.
2.) Let your burger rest a bit before biting in. The hot, molten cheese can scald you.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, August 24, 2007 at 5:00 PM
Steak can be the perfect last-minute dinner. A good cut can be seared and served in minutes, but it can also be expensive. Usually the quicker and easier it is to prepare, the more expensive the cut tends to be. And it doesn’t always have the most flavor.
I pulled this from the Chef on a Shoestring, and London broil certainly is an apt addition to the pantheon of cheap cuts. The pound-and-a-half cut I picked up was right around $5.
I can safely say I’ve never loaded a steak with this much seasoning. It felt wrong. It looked wrong. I’m not sure if you could even tell that there was meat underneath. I was dangerously close to rubbing all the seasoning off. Thankfully, I let all those spices sear on the hot skillet and imbue the meat with a wonderful chile aroma. Even though I marinated this tough cut for about as long as it took to preheat the oven, I ended up with a highly flavorful, tender dinner.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 17, 2007 at 5:00 PM
We've done french fries, chicken salad, and braised carrots so far from Michel Richard's Happy in the Kitchen. Today, I thought we'd offer something a little more meaty. And since these thyme-glazed baby back ribs looked so good, I thought they'd do the trick.
Continue reading »
